What Will Happen to Hosni Mubarak Now?

February 11, 2011February 12, 2011Digital Citizen 8 Comments

Hosni Mubarak has resigned as dictator of Egypt. In the immediate moment after his resignation, nobody in Egypt is probably caring much for what happens to Hosni, but soon, they will, or will have to.

Are they going to let him get away with the $40-70 Billion dollars he made on them?

Are they going to let him get away with all the war crimes and crimes against humanity he committed?

Are they going to let him run off to some place where a few tens of billions of dollars to your name can buy you a few friends and a luxurious retirement?

Somehow, I doubt it. So what will the people do?

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Six Life Philosophies from an Obituary Writer

September 17, 2009January 8, 2023Digital Citizen 3 Comments

The Boston Globe recently had a great short article about six life lessons given by Bryan Marquard, their obituary writer of over 800 obits in the past 3.5 years. His perspective was that he looked at life through the lens of death. The article ended by asking “what have you learned from life”?

I’ll summarize the article here and give a few answers for this post.

1. Be nice.
No matter what you accomplish, how you treat people has a lot to do with how you will be remembered.

2. Don’t be mean.
You can be #1 or #2 without being the other.

3. If you want to live long, retire young…
Leave some time for fun in your life.

4. Or don’t retire at all.
Pursue your passions.

5. You don’t have to be rich – or even have a home.
It’s you, what you are and what you do that matter most.

6. Act now.
Don’t put off what you’ve always wanted to do.

I liked the article because it looks at life through a very different perspective than one that I have. It’s not that I think most people have the view of an obituary writer, but rather how much I stay away from the thought of death. I have never fully read an obituary, even of some people very dear to me. And I don’t have insurance except for where I can’t avoid it, like to drive or insurance with my job. Sure, I appreciate a health plan and such, but insurance is like a constant reminder, with payment, of unfortunate things. As someone who believes that if you think about something enough, it might just happen to you, I stay away from those negative things.

As for some of what I’ve learned from life? For starters, I’ve got 26 life philosophies through this link. But if you’re not interested, I’ll leave three different ones here:

1. Act now, enjoy the moment, but live like there is always a tomorrow.
You couldn’t hope to either truly live every day or moment like it’s the last of your life, or last long doing it.

2. It’s not how you start that matters, but rather how you finish.
Save the best for last, and something better for tomorrow.

3. Everything means more the more you had to earn it.
“Earn” is any kind of effort you have to put in.

If you want lots of life lessons, please check out my blogging buddy’s Lifelessons4u blog. She’s got more life lessons than you could learn in a life time!

In the spirit of how the Boston Globe article ends, please feel free to leave comments regarding

What have you learned in life?

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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 4.2 (pffft! topic is a little beyond grade 4!) 🙂

Face Time Facebook Picture Tagging Meme

April 27, 2009March 19, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Please click here for a complete list of over 100 Facebook picture tagging memes on this site with which you can use for fun with your friends.

This is my latest Facebook 2.0 picture tagging meme or action tagging memes. It is named after the Web 2.0 concept, where it’s not just fun and games but result in real life actions. The latest one is to, ironically, get people off Facebook for some real life, face time, interaction.

You use this to tag people and let them know you’d like to see them in person. This is probably best for those who live near you but you haven’t seen lately, you don’t see often or often enough. Old high school, middle school, junior high or even elementary school friends we have on Facebook comes to mind. Same with those on past clubs, teams, work places and such. We have them on Facebook and it’s nice to be in touch again, but some we probably haven’t seen in person since. I know I have a few, and I know lots of people who do, too!

Here’s to “keeping it real” on Facebook!

Unlike most of the other Facebook picture tagging memes you’ve seen out there, it doesn’t really matter which icon you tag someone with here. It’s just to send a little reminder, in a fun way besides the other means like sending an email, to let you know you’re thinking of them. You can also take people off the list once you see them, as well as tag them again when it comes time to do so in the future.

Here’s how to get this Facebook picture meme to reunite in person, get some face time or just to see someone for some meaningful interaction:

Click on the picture to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Upload it to your Facebook profile.
Tag your friends!
Click the Back button on your browser to return to this post.

: Face Time Facebook meme

Accept More. Demand Less. Give Most.

March 6, 2009March 7, 2009Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Accept more speaks of acceptance in the manner of tolerance, but not tolerance because this isn’t about putting up with stuff. Acceptance is a bit more welcoming than being tolerant of something.

Demand less speaks of being less demanding all around, but especially in the area of entitlement. If you feel you are entitled to something, make sure you are willing to do to earn it. That is entitlement with a price, not entitlement in the free sense of the word.

Give most means to give more than you demand and accept, though accept here means what you take from others.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 8.5

Life is the Answer, so What are your Questions?

March 5, 2009January 7, 2023Digital Citizen Leave a comment

I’ve often heard people ask something along the lines of what is the answer to life? Sometimes, that question comes in the form of what is the meaning of life? However, I had an epiphany today that there was no answer to life because life is the answer.

Whatever you want to get out of life, you’ve got to live it to get it! You can’t expect it to come free and you should not expect to be entitled to it. If it did come free, it’d be less meaningful than if you had to earn it, anyway, so go out and get it. Go for it and work for it!

If you don’t know what you want out of life, which may put you in the majority rather than the minority unlike many might think, then just live life. Live a full life! Take some risks. Don’t be afraid to fail, because as an traditional Chinese proverbs says:

Failure is not about falling down, it’s about not getting back up.

But perhaps before that, take my official personal life motto (among many unofficial ones):

The best thing you can give someone, including yourself, is a chance.

Get yourself a chance first before worrying about failing. Worrying about failing will only contribute to the likelihood of a self-fulfilling prophecy as you’d be doing something not fully focused on it with part of your mind thinking about failing.

Finally, if you have aspirations of having to hurt or kill people for what you want out of life, or sacrificing yourself for it, remember, life is the answer. Not death.

So then, given life is the answer, what are your questions?

If you want that a little less metaphorical, what are the questions your life will answer?

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.2